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| Nightkill | 
| Authors: F. Paul Wilson, Steven Spruill, Steve Lyon
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $6.98 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 854675
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.3 x 1
ISBN: 0812565363
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 037145006994
EAN: 9780812565362
ASIN: 0812565363
Publication Date: April 15, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Jack Nacht knows how to take risks and believes in justice, even if it's of the skewed sort. he's one of the best at what he does--and what he does is kill people for a living. But it's a young man's game and he wants out.
And his instincts are right. When Jake reluctantly agrees to go on one last hit, he's double-crossed, and ends up completely paralyzed. The mob thinks he's done a deal. But what they don't know is that a brilliant doctor has developed a dangerous and deadly new technique. And if he succeeds, Jack Nacht will not only walk away again--but might also get a shot at revenge.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
Several notches above typical action/adventure fare September 18, 2007
With seventeen kills to his name, Jake Nacht is one of the mob's most reliable hitmen-he'll kill anyone if the price is right. Thus, he accepts a contract on a US Senator, despite his misgivings about having to do the job at a particular time and place. Nacht prepares carefully, but has to hurry his shot when he hears the police knocking on his hotel room door. Thinking quickly, Nacht almost escapes, but is gunned down by an officer who obviously knows who he is.
Paralyzed from the neck down, Nacht wants only to end his existence, but cannot do it alone. He strikes a desperate bargain with his nurse, Angela Graham, who reluctantly promises to assist his suicide if Nacht's physical rehabilitation is unsuccessful. Nacht gives it his all, but shows little improvement after four months. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain Nacht wants to hold Angela to her promise, but she has different ideas. Angela implores Jake to participate in an experiment conducted by her uncle, a scientist who wants to test risky spinal regeneration techniques on humans. Intrigued by the possibility of recovery and revenge on the men who set him up, Nacht agrees.
Jake is healed by the process, but does not know if the effects are permanent Since his time may be short, he immediately embarks on a campaign of vengeance, halting only when Angela is kidnapped in retaliation. Jake must face his enemies on their own ground if he is to save Angela and have his revenge.
Nightkill does not break any new ground, but is a good, solid read, several notches above typical action/adventure fare. Wilson and Lyon (aka Steven Spruill) take great pains to create a believable, engrossing backstory for Nacht, which metamorphosizes into a homage to the movie The Most Dangerous Game. Although Nacht's history is often more interesting than the action of the main story, it never totally eclipses it--the authors skillfully bring the novel to an explosive conclusion, providing ample thrills and drama along the way. Reminiscent of Stephen Hunter's novel Point of Impact and the Steven Seagal movie Hard to Kill, Nightkill is fast moving and hard hitting, a respectful tribute to the men's action/adventure genre.
Excellent revenge thriller! September 1, 2007
This is one of the few F. Paul Wilson novels I've read that had nothing to do with the supernatural. In fact, truth be told, it's really off my usual line of novels to read.
It's a revenge novel.
Hit man, working for the mob, kills other 'bad men' making the world a little better place, for a price.
He's offered a lucrative contract to kill a prominent senator, and in doing so breaks several 'rules' that were drilled (pun intended) into him by his mentor 'the Sarge'.
Things go south right from the get-go, and he ends up paralyzed from the neck down.
As with most of my favourite novels, this one is a human story, about finding a reason to live and righting wrongs. You get to see into the soul of this hired killer, and he turns out to be more than just a thug. In the end, what he's willing to do for someone he cares about shows just how much his experience changed him.
I would have given it a higher review, but the novel was too damned short, in my opinion.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the main character reminded me heavily of 'Jack' from his Repairman Jack series.
Worth reading, don't doubt that for a second.
 Not Wilson's Best January 19, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Jake Nacht has a rather unusual occupation. He's an assassin or better known in crime circles, a "Hit Man". Trouble is his latest hit didn't work out so well. Jake was set up by his employer and shot by an arresting officer. He was supposed to die but he didn't but as far as he's concerned that would have been far preferable to his present condition. You see Jake is now a paraplegic and he can't even eat a meal on his own let alone get even with his betrayers.
But Jake has a guardian angel. Well not really. Angel is her name and she's gorgeous but she's also his nurse. Jake really likes Angel and is even more frustrated that he can't do anything about it. In fact Jake is helpless. He can't do anything about anything and he wants to die, so he asks Angel to kill him. To his surprise, Angel was not surprised. It seems most paraplegics have similar emotions at first, so Angel agrees to consider this if he will work very hard in therapy for three months.
In his impaired state, Jake, having very little to do, periodically flashes back to his childhood. Jake was an orphan who bounced around until he arrived at Sarge's place. Sarge was a ex marine and sniper who became Jake's mentor and when Jake showed promise as a sniper, Sarge adopted him.
In the meantime unbeknown to Jake, his neurologist Dr. Graham, who is also Angel's uncle and is a research scientist as well, working on regeneration of spinal chords on paralyzed rats, has some success at approximately the same time Jake's ninety days is up. Jake is expecting Angel to help him die but instead is informed about the possibility of a cure.
Dr. Graham at first is angry at Angel for telling Jake and resistant since his procedure is in the early experimental stages. But Jake is persistent and convincing, plus Jake agrees to give him the five million dollar settlement he received from his shooting, which appeared to be a matter of mistaken identity.
Jake is moved to Dr. Graham's laboratory where the operation takes place and is a success and Jake is now free to pursue those who doublecrossed him or Angel but not both. However weeks if not months of physical therapy remain before Jake can think about any course of action.
Unfortunately, moving Jake from the hospital made Jake's former employers suspicious, as a mobile as well as motivated Jake would be a grave danger to them.
Conclusion
F. Paul Wilson is one of my favorite writers if not my overall favorite, however I'm afraid Nightkill was not quite up to the standard of most of his books. At two hundred and eighty-seven pages, Nightkill was a quick easy read and a pleasant one as well. The story showed promise but it never quite lived up to that promise. This book was co-authored with Steve Lyon so I don't know where or how much of a contribution Wilson made. The writing style was still smooth and concise. The story was pretty much from the first person and the character development was ok, though not great.
It was hard to sympathize with our hit man protagonist, even after reading about his strange upbringing with Sarge. I suppose I should touch on that a little. Sarge who had been a Marine Corp sniper evolved into a hired hit man for the Mob but he felt no challenge in killing helpless, unsuspecting, stationary targets. He trained Jake, ostensibly to follow in his footsteps but had something else in mind.
It was also hard to imagine that Jake could have been so lucky to have fallen into the hands of Dr. Graham, the only person in the history of the Universe, who was, amazingly, able to cure him, while having Graham's gorgeous niece/nurse fall in love with him.
In summary Nightkill is only a slightly better than average novel, though highly readable, that should appeal more to Wilson's fans than others. Final rating: 3.3 stars
Good plot - good characters! July 8, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hitman Jack Nacht is the best in the business with a body count of 17 contract murders over his career. When he is hired to "off" a Senator who's getting a little too close to mob affairs, Jake's world is turned upside down when he is shot and paralyzed by a crooked cop who's in on the double cross. As Jake wallows in self-pity and dispair over his quadrapelegic state, he is befriended by (and falls in love with) his rehabilitation nurse, Angel Deschanel. After weeks of rehabiliation to no avail, Angel tells Jake of a radical procedure that her uncle, Dr. Joseph Graham, has performed on paralyzed rats that have allowed them to regain full range of motion. Jake convinces Angel and Graham to try the procedure on him. Unbeknownst to the medical duo, Jake's motivation for the surgical procedure is to help him regain the use of his limbs so that he can extract his revenge on HIS conspirators.The book is fast-paced and well-plotted. And, while the surgical procedure used to help Jake regain his movement is more than a little far-fetched, if the reader can overlook that bit of "medical fiction", he or she will find themselves immersed in a very strong story. Recommended to the fans of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook because of the medical aspects of the book and to the fans of Clive Cussler and Jack DeBrul because of the "heroic" aspect of the book.
An Excellent Read October 9, 1999
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
A very fast paced book, Jake is a character with whom i expect to see several sequals, I`d rate the character to have the ability to compete with a Dirk Pitt,Lucas Davenport,and a John Becker......Need i say More...
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